Demon's Angel
by Baculities
Summary: Reposted.
1. Default Chapter

Demon's Angel

AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with. OOC, AU, future Yaoi, and X-over warnings.

**Demon's Angel**

**Prologue**

Duo POV

When I was little I had an imaginary friend. Pretty normal thing for a kid ta have I guess by what Sally tells me. Thing is I could only see or talk ta my friend when I was asleep an' dreamin', dreams that I still remember. Those dreams are some a the first things I can remember. An' that's something I've never told anyone 'cause this friend of mine taught me stuff. Stuff that kept me alive on the streets for a short time 'til I hooked up with Solo an' he took over teachin' me stuff like pickin' pockets, pickin' locks an' the like. After I joined Solo's gang, an' he took over teachin' me ta survive in the L2 slums, my friend started teaching other things like letters an' numbers an' stuff.

Lookin' back I don't know what ta think. If somebody told me that they learned ta read an' write an' stuff from someone they only dreamt about, I would try ta catch 'em off guard, tie 'em up, an' let the doctors deal with 'em. But still, it's the truth. I first learned ta do that sorta stuff in my sleep. My friend taught me other stuff too. He taught me the basics a fightin', an' settin' traps ta catch rats for food an' Japanese. She taught me stuff like cookin' an' how ta hide an' get people ta ignore me.

That's another weird thing 'bout my dream friend. Sometimes he showed up as a guy with blue eyes an' black hair in a braid in poofy black pants an' a red shirt an' other times he showed up as a shorter girl with the same eyes an' clothes but with red hair sometimes braided sometimes not. An' somehow… somehow I just knew they were the same person.

My dream friend tellin' me ta go outside is one a the first things I can remember. Out side where? I don't know. The other thing I remember is starin' at a building on fire an' runnin' when someone tried ta grab me. I musta been 'bout four or five years old when that happened 'cause that's how old Solo said I was when he found me sleepin' in a box wearin' grubby PJs an' cuddlin' a stuffed ducky. I can remember the ducky, he was yellow an' nubbly, his body was flat an' kinda oval shaped with short legs, his tummy made a great pillow. He had little wings sewn ta his sides an' red triangle feet on the legs. An' his head was round an' flat with black an' white fabric eyes an' a broad red bill sewn on it, an' he had a tuft a yellow yarn on the top a his head.

I carried that ducky everywhere an somehow I managed ta keep a hold a him for at least six years. I can remember Solo makin' me hide him when we went ta steal food an' stuff. By the time Father Maxwell found me an' the few members a Solo's gang that survived the plague, that poor duck was so grubby an' beaten up Sister Helen musta had one hell of a time recognizin' what he was, much less cleanin' an mendin' him. But fix him she did, an' he lived on my bed 'til Maxwell church was destroyed an' he went with it.

Talkin' 'bout Maxwell church, that was where I found the picture a my imaginary friend an' where he got a name. Sister Helen had an' old bible her grandma had given her when she was a kid that had pictures. A couple a weeks after I got ta Maxwell Church I was snoopin' an' found it. She caught me lookin' through it an' hid it better, but before she did, I found a picture a an angel who looked just like my friend. So I tried ta call him Angel but he wouldn't answer when I called him that. He asked me ta keep on callin' him Onii-san, but I still called him angel in my head. My Angel, Maxwell's demon's very own angel.

I'd been at the church for about six months when Father Maxwell found a young man unconscious and bleedin' on the church steps. That's when I found out that my imaginary friend might not be quite so imaginary after all.

**Chapter 1**

Duo knew something was up the minute he successfully snuck back into the church without finding either Sister Helen or Father Maxwell waiting for him. Of course this came as no surprise since not only were all the lights still on even though by now everything was usually dark except Father Maxwell's office, but everyone was still awake, even the really little kids.

Not bothering trying to sneak, useless since everyone was awake already, Duo headed towards the hall leading to the front door where most of the noise seemed to be coming from. Duo couldn't help but be even more curious when he ran into a batch of kids jammed in the doorway trying to watch something in the hall but obviously told to stay away from it. Since he couldn't anything over or around the crowd of kids Duo resorted to asking a slightly older girl who was  
one of the biggest gossips in the orphanage what was going on.

The only thing Nate could tell him was that Father Maxwell had brought home an older kid an was patching him up with Sister's help. She added that it was a guy with black hair and yellow skin, and that he was really scrawny like he hadn't eaten in weeks.

Duo didn't have time to ask any more questions as the clot of children in the doorway broke up as Father Maxwell came through them carrying a young redheaded girl with a bandage on her head and liberally splattered with blood.

After the priest, with Sister Helen following, were through the crowd, they all turned to follow him towards his office. Halfway there sister Helen asked Duo and two of the other bigger kids to go fetch a cot, blankets, pillows, hot water, and a towel. 

Annoyed at having to leave before he could figure out just what was going on and puzzled by the conflict between Nate's report and what he had seen, Duo headed off with Jason and Erin to fetch the requested bedding. He brightened as he realized that he'd get a closer look at the newest kid when he hauled his burden of blankets and pillows into the office.

After wading through the crowd of littler kids outside the office, he had to tell Nate, Megan, and Davie to get outta his way so he coud get the stuff Sister wanted through the door. As soon as she spotted him and his mound of stuff, sister hurried over to asked about the cot and the water. When Duo told her Jason and Erin where right behind him she seemed to relax , took the  
blankets from him and told him to follow her.

Still curious and confused, Duo followed after with the pillows and nearly gasped out loud as he saw the face of the Red head laying on the floor of office. He was so shocked to see the face of the person he'd called onee-san and only ever dreamt about that he nearly gave himself away despite what Solo had drilled into him on the streets, and his one/onii-san had taught him. Solo told him to never show surprise of fear, that if they know you're scared they'll get you.

Someone who'd sometimes looked exactly like the girl currently knocked out on Father Maxwell office floor had taught him somethin' similar. 'Never let 'em know what you are thinking or feeling. Have a mask that doesn't challenge people or make 'em nervous an' only let it go when you are with people you can trust.' She'd, well, he'd told Duo that long ago. He said that if he'd learned that earlier, his life would have been a lot less nuts.

She'd also scolded him for being arrogant. 'Confidence is fine, but there's always someone out there who's gonna better than you at something. So don't get cocky, it'll get ya killed.' was what she told him. Then she'd grinned, winked, and commented that pretendin' to be arrogant was somethin' else, good for annoyin' people, but to be careful, you don't want to piss anyone   
off too bad.

So far he'd found what they'd told him useful, but lookin' at her layin' there, he had ta wonder if he really was goin' nuts, listenin' ta people talkin' ta him in his dreams.

##### 

No one had been more shocked than Sister Helen Mary Donovan when the boy she'd been bandaging turned into a girl when she tried to wash away the blood drying on his face with the water one of the children had brought her. Father Maxwell's calm acceptance of their patients change in gender did little to calm her. He only raised an eyebrow and hmm'd when the dark haired young man he'd brought inside shrank and changed into a girl with red hair.

Helen, as she thought of herself, could only nod and follow Father Maxwell with big eyes and shaky knees when he decided to move the girl into his office instead of into the boys dorm as he'd originally suggested. As they moved through the children gathered in the doorway her eyes narrowed as she spotted Duo who had snuck out of the orphanage earlier n the day and had been absent for both lunch and dinner. She made a note to deal with him and his habit of slipping out  
with out permission later. Maybe she could have him watch the Father's newest charity case with out being allowed a book as punishment for this latest escapade. She had found that Duo hated having to sit still in one place unless he was reading.

Her mind made up despite the knowledge that Duo would find the gender changing person all too interesting, Helen sent Duo and two of the other older children to fetch a cot and bedding for the young... person in question to sleep in and warm water and towels to clean them up with.

##### 

Despite what Sister Helen thought, Father Maxwell was not quite as calm as he looked. However, he had learned to hide his thoughts behind the thoughtfully calm mask which he was currently employing. His brain in fact was working over time. While this sort of occurrence was blatantly unnatural and there fore supposedly evil, it somehow seemed oddly familiar, as if he'd heard of something like it before. It was not until he'd reached his office and spotted the  
handful of books on legends and mythology that his brother had sent him to read to the children that he remembered why this transformation was familiar.

Earlier in the week, he'd been skimming a book of Chinese mythology for suitable stories to tell the younger children when he'd come across a tale regarding water based curses and a place called Jusenkyo. He recalled that water temperature was important for some reason, but could remember no more. As he lay his burden on the floor, he made a note to look for that particular myth before going to sleep in hopes that it might shed some light on his current problem.

In the meantime, he had other things to worry about.

##### 

Later on, once Sister Helen was satisfied that the girl, once again a boy, was both clean enough not to permanently stain her clean sheets and on the road to recovery, she left Duo to watch the older boy while she and the Father put the rest of the children to bed. Calming the children and convincing them to go to sleep after the evenings excitement took nearly an hour and by the time they were done, she was very much looking forward to her own bed. Yet, her work wasn't done  
as there was one more child to send to bed and another to keep watch over.

She was mildly surprised to see Father in a chair, obviously looking for something in one of his books and keeping an eye on the strange ... boy, while little Duo lay fast asleep on the floor under the cot curled around his pillow under the blankets from his bunk. When she asked him about who would watch the boy and wake him up every hour he told he to go to bed as Duo had  
volunteered to take the second half of the night. She protested, but he told her quite firmly to go to bed an get some sleep. He added that while Duo could take a nap in the afternoon, she would never get the same chance and that he knew she'd been up half the previous night with a feverish toddler.

As she left she barely heard him mutter that it was good Duo was taking an open interest in other people as had not done since the few members of his gang that survived the plague had been split up. 

##### 

Pain 

Flashes of light stabbing through his poor head as the hand on his shoulder shook him gently and a quiet voice asked him to wake up and open his eyes for a moment.

Nausea 

Through the pain in his skull he could distantly feel his stomach trying to rebel, but he had nothing to throw up.

Light 

Bright searing light trying to split his skull open as he obeyed the annoying little voice and tried to open his eyes even a little. As his eyes began to focus, an oddly familiar face swam into view. A child, a young boy? With brown hair falling in his purple eyes. Duo? He must have said it out loud because the face broke into a grin and the head began a dizzying up and down motion. 

Duo. 

His eyes slid shut.

Not a dream. Hurts too much to be a dream...

His mind and the world beyond dissolved as he slid back into unconsciousness.

AN: Remember people, this is an Alternate Universe fic with Out Of Character warnings. If I change things a bit don't flame me, but If I miss something really important, please, let me know. To those of you who read Burning Bridges first, I hope some things might be a little clearer now. To those who haven't read it, please do, some things later on aren't going to make much sense if you don't.

As always reviews are greatly appreciated, and flames will be used as Kleenex.


	2. chapter 2

**Demon's angel**

**Chapter 2 **

AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with. OOC, AU, future Yaoi, and X-over warnings.

The door to one of the few private rooms in the building swung open about eight inches and an angular face with messy red hair and brown eyes appeared in the opening. The person looking into the room had oiled the hinges so that the door swung almost silently with only the tiniest of creaks coming from the old metal. Still the eyes of the youngest person in the room slitted open, searching for the source of the sound and moving air that woken him up where he slept safe under the cot his nii-san slept in.

The boy relaxed as he recognized the only other member of Solo's old gang still at the orphanage looking into the room from his position kneeling on the floor just outside Father Maxwell's study. Duo couldn't help but grin as he saw three more heads appear in the opening between the door and the frame, stacked upward in a line like the beads on Sister's rosary. He knew what was coming, sooner or later someone would loose their balance and they'd all come tumbling into the room probably waking up… He frowned, probably waking up Father Maxwell asleep at his desk and nii-san who hadn't woken up since he'd come to for a couple a minutes and recognized him in the middle of the night.

Duo was about to crawl out of his nest and shoo the other kids away when the inevitable happened and gravity won. "eep!" Creeeak, thud, thud, thu-thud, crack, "oof". "Ooow..", "my head hurts!", "Off, can't breath…!" The last came from Slider who had ended up on the bottom of the pile of peeping toms. The complaining, quiet as it was, cut off the second the intruders froze when they spotted Duo glaring at them as he crept out from under the cot set up between two bookshelves across from Father Maxwell's desk.

That glare promised both pain and humiliation if they'd woken anyone up.

The kids piled on the floor were lucky. The boy on the cot didn't even stir and Father Maxwell didn't do more than shift in his chair a bit, his head turning in it's place on his arms crossed on his desk.

The glare didn't soften until Duo, Slider and the other three were in the hall outside the office and the door was firmly shut. That's when Duo opened his mouth and the uninvited visitors found out just how much their little spy mission had pissed him off.

"Wha' the hell are ya doin' ya idjits?! Yer damn lucky ya didn't wake 'em up, I'da had ta whop yer asses if ya had!"

Sister Helen had been working very hard to get Duo to stop swearing and in consequence the boy was very familiar with the taste of soap. She spent so much time washing his mouth out that he could tell where he was by the type and flavor of the soap she'd used. She had succeeded to a certain degree and he made sure to watch his mouth when she was around, especially in the church. He only forgot himself when he was either very angry or excited, and everyone knew this.

Slider stared at the floor and pouted sullenly. The other three followed suit. It wasn't fair. Sure Duo was the oldest kid at the orphanage, but why did he get to watch the new kid that nobody else had got more than a glimpse of? Why didn't Sister ask him to help? He was only a few months younger than the older boy, and he was bigger too! Duo was the better thief and could fight meaner, but that was only because he'd been on the streets longer that him and had more practice. At least that's what Slider told himself, as well as anyone who'd listen.

Duo grimaced and shook his head as he looked at the red head of the only other member of Solo's gang who still hadn't gotten adopted after they all ended up at the Maxwell orphanage once the plague had died down. He still wished Solo'd listened to him when he'd told him that Slider, also known as Jimmy Ericks, would be a problem and not to let him stay in the gang. Sure the boy had no real clue how to survive when they'd found him at the beginning of the plague, he'd only been on the streets a couple of days, but that was no reason to put up with the pain in the butt, wanna be bully for longer than it took to teach him to forage and who to avoid. The little bastard had even stolen food from the littler kids rather than go find his own!

Duo at ten was the oldest of the kids at Maxwell church and had spent most of his life on the streets. Most of the 'ex'-street rats at the church treated him as gang leader and as being in charge after Father Maxwell and Sister Helen, and he knew Slider resented that everyone listened to someone smaller than him. Nothing had happened yet, but Duo knew that sooner or later Slider was going to try to fight with him for his spot as gang leader and Sister Helen and Father Maxwell were going to be upset when he knocked the moron back into place.

An old man with a long pointy nose and strange grey hair had offered to adopt Duo, but Duo had refused and Father Maxwell had let him stay. There was no way he was going to risk leaving an idiot like Slider in charge in case something happened to either the Father or the sister. The moron would get everyone killed. He was a bully with less brains than a rat in Duo's opinion. Good only as a doorstop.

With one last word, "Moron" aimed at Slider, Duo slipped back into the room and checked on his patient. The older boy was looking a bit better. He wasn't as pale as he had been earlier and some of the lines of pain on his face had relaxed. Duo was surprised that his nii-san only looked a couple of years older than him sleeping like this. Duo frowned in confusion as he started really thinking about his dreams about this boy over the years. He'd thought his nii-san was older than this, older than Solo even and Solo had been 15 when he'd died.

Duo flopped down into the chair in front of the desk across from the sleeping Father Maxwell more than a little confused. Could it be that this wasn't Angel, his nii-san? No, it had to be, he'd known him and said his name when he'd woken up after Father M had fallen asleep. So it Had to be his Angel. But why was he so young?

Since he had nothing else to do until either Sister Helen came and got him or Father M woke up, Duo stared at the boy th Father had brought back with him and started seriously thinking about his dreams with Angel in them. After about half an hour he started to notice something he'd ignored before. As he'd gotten older Angel had gotten younger, at least that's what he thought was what had happened. Duo had thought it was just because he was growing that his nii-san seemed to be getting shorter. He'd either missed or ignored the fact that while his nii-san had started out a lot taller than his nee-san, as Duo had gotten older, the height difference between his Angel's girl and boy forms had gotten less and less and both looked less and less like adults.

Still staring at the boy in the cot, Duo had to comment even if it was only to himself on just how weird this all was. He must have said something out loud because he whipped his head around to look at Father Maxwell who continued to chuckle as he stretched, trying to work out the kinks in his back that came from sleeping hunched over in his chair again.

"Weird." The elderly man yawned widely, unable to cover his mouth with his arms out trying to work some of the stiffness out of his muscles. "That my young friend is a word I can agree with. It was very strange finding that young man bleeding on the church steps." Standing up the priest pulled off his glasses and began trying to clean them on his shirt. "The poor boy was laid out almost like an offering or sacrifice of some sort." His glasses back on his nose, the older man made his way over to the cot containing his churches newest inhabitant and muttered. "Most strange indeed…"

Not sure if Father Maxwell was still talking to him or not, Duo stayed put, barely able to resist telling the Father about his dreams and how he seemed to know the black haired boy who lay so still. Duo tried to stay sitting still as the rooms owner sank into contemplation while staring at the odd boy-girl he had rescued the night before.

Finally unable to stand the silence any longer Duo hopped out of his chair, went over to the unmoving pair, and started pulling his blanket and pillow from under the cot getting ready to take them back to the room he normally slept in with all the other boys older than 4. The hand on his shoulder stopped him when he turned to go to the door.

"Duo, do you know this boy?"

Unwilling to answer convinced that one of the few people who's opinion he gave a damn about would think that he was nuts if he did, Duo just chewd on his lower lip and stared at the floor pretending a fascination with his bare feet.

"Duo, answer me. Do you know this boy from somewhere? He seemed to recognize you when he woke up last night. Where have you seen him before?" Father Maxwell's light baritone seemed almost urgent as he tried to coax an answer from the boy most people referred to as Maxwell's Demon due to his antics and reputation as one of the best thieves in the slums despite his lack of age.

At the boy's continued uncharacteristic silence the elderly man shook his head and sighed. "Duo, if you know this boy please at least tell me if it is safe to allow him to remain here?" The grudging nod he got in response to his words was followed by an assurance that the young man in question would not be a risk to the orphanage.

As Father Maxwell turned away to go towards the door he asked, "In that case Duo, would you be willing to share the small storage room with him if we cleaned it out and put a pair of bed in side? He's not yet fit to be on his own and as the only familiar face here he would probably be the most comfortable with you." After assuring Duo that yes he was serious and receiving Duo's agreement to share what amounted to a large closet with the older boy, Father Maxwell sent the violet eyed child off to get some food for himself and some broth to feed his new room mate.

Neither noticed Slider listening around the corner, more resentful than ever of Duo's 'privileges'.

AN: Remember people, this is an Alternate Universe fic with Out Of Character warnings. If I change things a bit don't flame me, but If I miss something really important, please, let me know. To those who haven't read Burning Bridges or Limbo, please do, some things now and later on aren't going to make much sense if you don't.

As always reviews are greatly appreciated, and flames will be used as Kleenex.


	3. chapter 3

Demon's Angel

Chapter 3

AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with. OOC, AU, future Yaoi, and X-over warnings.

When the new boy hadn't regained consciousness for even a few minutes by the end of second day Father Maxwell had gotten worried enough to start talking about calling a doctor the next morning. However that step was proven unnecessary when the boy suddenly woke up halfway through his third night in the Father's study.

At first the only one who noticed the boy's increasing restlessness was Duo who now spent most of his time either sitting next to or curled up under the cot the black haired boy slept in, watching and waiting for him to wake up. Father Maxwell was engrossed in finishing writing the Sermon for the next day. It wasn't until the boy started groaning and muttering to himself in Japanese, not that he knew that's what it was, that the elderly priest noticed what was occurring.

A moments later nearly everyone noticed the yelps that reverberated through the halls. Only three people heard the groans the followed.

The new kid was awake.

The first thing he'd done was try to get out of bed and while he had succeeded the only reason he hadn't cracked his head when his legs gave out was landing on top of Duo who'd jumped to catch him as he'd started falling. Father Maxwell couldn't help but find it amusing as he watched the boys try to untangle themselves as he walked over to help them. Lifting the older boy off of the younger, he made a note to tell Helen about this little fiasco, he was sure she'd find it entertaining as well.

Heaven only knew that they could use all the amusement they could find, things were tighter than ever at the orphanage since the passing of the new laws meant to get kids like Duo and his gang off the streets. Unfortunately the accompanying increase in their funding didn't match the increased number of children in the orphanage and both he and Helen had had to find ways to keep everyone squeaking by.

Not that he considered the extra children an inconvenience, heavens no, but he did wish that they could afford for the children to have more than one bath a week and maybe even fresh fruit occasionally.

Absorbed in his thoughts, Father Maxwell sat the larger boy back on his cot and told him no stay put for the moment while he sent Duo to get Sister Helen. That said and his demon out of the room, he did his best to get the boy he'd rescued to talk to him. To his surprise, it was relatively easy, he'd expected the boy to be just as unwilling to talk as most street children were when they first arrived.

By the time Duo was back, Sister Helen in tow, the Father had learned that the boy spoke some English but mostly Japanese, was name Ranma, and had no idea where he was, where he was from, or how he had gotten to where Father Maxwell had found him.

She was in the middle of moving wet clothes to the dryer when Duo bounced into the back courtyard grinning like mad. Since he'd barely moved out of the study since the new…child had been carried in by Father Jim, she figure that the occupant of the cot under the window in the study was finally awake.

Leaving the rest of the damp sheets in the basket and asking Amy to finish loading the dryer, she followed an excited Duo back into the church. By the time they'd reached the second floor Duo was pulling her along holding onto her wrist trying to get her to hurry up. She was amazed by the smile on the boy's face, and now that she had seen the real thing she recognized that his normal grin was little more than a mask, something to disguise his feelings and thoughts, both protection and camouflage.

As they came with in sight of the study door Duo ran ahead, braid bouncing against his narrow back, and slipped through the half open door as easily as an alley cat between a pair of trash cans. Her impression of him as a cat was only increased by the sight of him curled up against the older…boy who was currently sitting on the cot talking to Father Jim and stroking the younger child's braid.

Watching the two boys she began to realize that what she had thought was the increasing amount of trust Duo had shown her in the last few months was really only acceptance. For some reason it hurt seeing the boy, who's trust she'd worked so hard to gain, snuggled up against the strange boy-girl that Father Jim had found. She was beginning to actively wonder what the other had that she didn't to so quickly inspire trust when she heard Duo telling Father Jim that he'd known Ranma as long as he could remember.

She chided herself for being silly, of course there was nothing lacking in her ability to deal with children. The reason Duo was so close to the other was that they'd known each other before Duo came to the orphanage. She did wonder where the other boy had been and why they had been separated before Duo was brought into the orphanage though. If the way the seemed to be treating each other was any indication, she would have thought that Ranma would never have left Duo if he'd had any choice. Oh well, she could try to puzzle that out later. Right now she didn't really have the time, she needed to get supper started if anyone was going to eat that night and she had to get both boys settled in the ex-storage closet that was to be their new room.

Naturally they couldn't keep the older one in either the boy's or girl's dorms.

Duo was confused.

Somehow he knew this guy. He knew his name without asking and knew he was younger than he should be. He knew that he was Japanese and that he spoke English, Chinese, and a couple of other languages too. He also knew that he was the heir to the Anything Goes schools of martial arts and that somehow he'd taught Duo just about everything he knew about fighting and stealing. This was the guy that taught him to read and write and do basic math, and hadn't that surprised Sister Helen when she'd found out she didn't need to teach him those… Even the switching from boy to girl and back with cold and hot water was familiar.

He felt like he'd known this guy all his life, and for some reason he trusted him more than anyone he'd ever met. Only problem was he'd never met the guy before Father Maxwell brought him home.

Duo had spent the last several days more or less living in the Father's study, all the time watching or listening for the strange boy still sleeping in the cot above him, dreaming about him, or thinking about dreaming about him in the past. He still hadn't figured out what was going on. Was he going nuts, or had he really dreamed about this guy for most of his life? After the older boy woke up for bit and recognized him a couple of days after he showed up Duo had been even more confused than before.

Duo had been dozing for about an hour when movement from above startled him awake. He listened for a few seconds until he heard muttering that was not coming from the direction of Father Maxwell's desk Excited by the prospect of his best friend finally waking up, Duo scrambled out from under the cot and perched on the chair beside it, eyes focused on the face of the unconscious form in front of him. He sat there listening and watching for almost fifteen minutes before actual words started becoming discernable from the steady stream of almost inaudible ramblings.

This being who it was, he was not in the least surprised by the fact that the words were Japanese. It sounded like his Onii-san was having a bad dream. He sounded upset and was muttering something about it's being cold and dark and not being able to move. Duo glanced nervously at the Father at his desk as Ranma got increasingly louder, his words changing. Now he was talking about a stupid panda and dropping it off the side of a ship chained to a couple of cars and something about girls and cats and uncute tomboys.

Father Maxwell didn't seem to notice what was going on until Ranma had increased his volume to the point where Duo could have heard him clearly across the room. At that point he came over to the cot and actually touched Ranma before Duo could stop him. As soon as the Father's had touched his shoulder the boy on the cot gasped, sat strait up and tried to jump out of the cot on to his feet.

It didn't work.

Duo didn't know who yelped louder him when Ranma started to fall, one foot still tangled in blankets, or Ranma when he hit the floor with Duo under him, finally awake enough to notice that he was face to face with the person he had thought was a sign of his impending insanity while trapped in that strange place he had ended up in when the Naban mirror shattered. He did know that he groaned the loudest afterwards still trapped under the larger form who had one elbow planted in Duo's stomach and the smaller boy solidly trapped beneath him. Duo could tell that Father Maxwell was trying to keep a grin off his face when he finally pulled Ranma off Duo and sat him back on the cot.

As he took off to look for Sister Helen like the Father asked Duo couldn't help but wonder if things were going to change now that the only person he'd ever fully trusted had turned out to be real.

AN: I lost some reviews when I switched this fic from GW to Ranma but still, thanks to everyone who's reviewed this fic here or there. I don't really know how long it'll be till the next chapter comes out.

Please review!


	4. chapter 4

Demon's Angel

Chapter 4 (repost)

AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with. OOC, AU, future Yaoi, and X-over warnings. I decided that I didn't like the way I ended the chapter. It left me backed into a corner, so I made a couple of changes. Hopefully the next chapter well be out in not too long...

Thanks to Kuno-Baby, Innortal, Jerry Unipeg, and ranma hibiki for the reviews.

Ranma had been awake for all of three days and already he had someone out to get him.

Of course, this someone was no where near being the kind of opponent he had been used to. Even that idiot Kuno had been more subtle and dangerous, not to mention intelligent. It was annoying none the less. Still, he had to admit that most of his old enemies would find him dead easy to deal with these days. Hell, most of 'em would either laugh in his face if he tried to challenge them or chuckle indulgently, pat him on the head, and tell him to come back when he'd gotten a bit older.

Not that he could really have blamed them.

It had been enough to shock the hell out of him once he'd figured out just what had happened to him in that empty grey space the Naban mirror had stranded him in. He'd lost a good foot of height, almost a third of his mass, and a third of his age, and he hadn't noticed. Not until he'd stripped to take a bath and noticed somethings missing. The only hair was on his head and his equipment hadn't been that small since he hit puberty! That's when he looked in the mirrror and saw a face he'd last seen before convincing his Pops that selling him off to be raped was a bad idea. It was him, he was a kid again.

That's about the time he screamed and scared the shit out of Duo and Father Maxwell. They'd come busting into the bathroom scared that he'd fallen and hurt himself or broken something. Soon after that he wasn't the only one who was confused about his age.

That had been three days ago, and since then Ranma had been settled into his and Duo's room, been given clothes that actually sort of fit him, and had started integrating himself into daily life at the orphanage. He'd also learned that a several of the older kids, all younger than him, were upset that he and Duo got a room all to themselves even if it had been a closet before he'd shown up. A few of them were downright nasty about it, especially that Slider kid Duo had benn complaining about since before Solo died. After dealing with the red-headed brat and his buddies for a couple of days and watching how they treated everyone smaller and younger than them, Ranma had to agree with Duo that everyone would be better off if Slider and his three 'friends' dropped off the face of the earth... or colony in this case.

The four boys all had asperations to be top dog, but Slider was by far the worst. It was also clear that the only thing keeping the brat from being an even bigger pain in the ass was the fact that Duo, while smaller, was smarter and more importantly could beat the other boy in a fight with both arms tied behind his back. Something Duo was quite proud of, thank you very much, and occassionally had to demonstrate when the larger boy tried to challange Duo's authority like he had the day after Ranma woke up. Ranma had been most displeased to be stuck watching from the sidelines with all the other kids, but he still wasn't up to doing much. He was still to weak to be of much use in a fight.

He had some serious work to do to recover what he'd lost while hanging in limbo.

When he first woke up, Ranma had noticed that he was much weaker than he was used to being but he'd chalked that up to the time he'd spent drifting in that strange nothingness the mirror had stranded him in for so long. The height thing, or rather the lack there of, had thrown him since he felt like he did when he was a guy, yet he was about the same height he was when a girl. But once again, he'd figured that after spending so much time in that grey place working on controlling his curse, he'd finally gotten used to his girl's body.

If he hadn't been so out of it, he might have figured out from the lack of boobs that something was wrong before it came up and kicked him in the balls so to speak.

As it was, discovering that he was once again a pre-adolecent twelve year old boy came as a bit of a shock to someone who hadn't been so small and relatively weak in quite a long time and who was still much older mentally. Though he had to admit that the lack of a libido, while somewhat distressing, was also something of a relief. He'd never really gotten used to being interested in sex. Sure he'd touched himself a few times when he got a bit of time alone, but he'd been beaten up and raped too many times by the guys his Pops sold him to to be comfortable even touching most people, let alone doing That to anyone.

Yeah sure he'd heard that if you 'did it right' with a girl it was supposed to feel good, especially if you where the guy, but he didn't really believe what Hiroshi and Daisuki had told him. There was no way that having some guy stick his prick anywhere could be anything but painful. Kissing was supposed to be fun too, but since the only girl he'd ever trusted enough to relax around (outside of the Neko-ken) was Kasumi, he'd never kissed anyone he'd trusted not to hit or attack him on a whim. So he didn't believe that either.

Still despite his personal opinions of sex, Ranma found the absence of the urge to touch himself left a ... gap in the way he expected to feel. Though given his current physical age, as estimated by Father Maxwell, that urge would start to return in a few months. So, no big deal. It wasn't like he missed it that much anyway.

What he really wasn't looking forward to was Duo starting to get those urges. Knowing the younger boy, he'd expect Ranma to have all the answers. Answers that he didn't have. He also knew that if he told Duo what he did know about sex, the younger boy would do his damnedest to weedle out of Ranma how he knew what he knew about sex, and that would end in tears. Duo's or his, he didn't know. With his luck it would be both.

He'd be more than happy if no one ever knew how he'd been hurt by the men his father sold him to. He didn't really think he'd get his wish in this matter. That was due to way he'd seen Father Maxwell looking at him a time or two since he'd woken up combined with the knowledge the older man had helped clean him up while he was still out. Ranma figured that the older man had seen the scarring that he knew existed.

That in mind he was quite pleased that the priest had yet to bring that particular topic up. Of course that might have had something to do with the fact that the only time the two of them had been alone together had been right after he woke up. While the Father seemed comfortable discussing most things around Duo, such as Ranma's curse and his age, he didn't seem willing to ask Ranma if he had been raped with the younger boy listening. And since Duo had been Ranma's shadow since the incident in the bathroom, he'd heard everything Father Maxwell had discussed with Ranma. Duo seemed to be afraid that the older boy would get hurt or somehow disappear if he didn't keep his eyes on him. It was getting annoying, but he was grateful since it kept the Father from asking the questions that Ranma could see in his eyes. Questions that Ranma really didn't want to answer.

-ooOOoo-

Jim Maxwell sighed as once more the new child, Ranma, avoided his gaze. There was obviously something the boy didn't want to talk about and while Father Jim thought that he knew what that something was, it was not something he was willing to discuss in front of Duo. Getting the boy he'd found bleeding on the steps alone for a talk was proving to be nearly impossible. The younger boy had followed the older about like a shadow since he and Duo had run into the bathroom to find Ranma staring first at the mirror and then at himself in horror.

It had taken a bit to calm the boy down to the point where Jim could understand what the problem was, and when that happened Jim almost wished it hadn't.

Ranma claimed to be eighteen years old, despite having the body of an eleven or twelve year old.

When he'd asked how that could be possible, trying to humor the boy, the tale that followed strained and ruptured the limits of credulity. If the boy was to be believed, he'd traveled into the future, somehow loosing six years in the process. Even when questioned later he kept to the same impossible story. It was clear that the boy was either lying or imagining things. Which, Father Jim really couldn't tell. The boy obviously needed help that he and Helen couldn't provide, but since he didn't seem to be dangerous he couldn't justify sending the boy away. Especially since doing so would break Duo's heart. The other problem was that if you watched the boy's eyes when he spoke, you could see that he believed every word he said. If he was lying, he was an incredible actor, but somehow that just didn't seem to fit.

Could the boy have been hypnotized and fed the tale? Because that was the only other scenario that Jim could come up with to explain the boy's belief in his fantastic story. However, even that wild idea came with it's own problems and bred further questions as well. Still, that idea made as little sense as any of the others that he'd come up with to explain the boy's reactions and story. Sadly, it was most likely that the boy had lied to him, likely to protect either himself or someone else.

In, the mean time, all they could do was wait and watch to how the boy did and to make sure he didn't become a threat to the other children in the orphanage. Maybe if they gave him enough time he'd trust them with the real story.

-oo00oo-

It wasn't fair.

Duo got all the special treatment like getting to skip school to tag along behind that freak Father Maxwell brought to the orphanage and getting his own room insted af being stuck in the dorms. It didn't matter that he had to share what used to be a closet with that freaky boy-girl, it was the principle of the thing. Duo was just a worthless street rat who'd eaten out of trashcans for most of his life. He had been a normal kid before his parennts were killed which ment that he should be the one getting special treatment since he was so obviously better than Duo.

It just wasn't fair.

AN: I'm sorry it's been a while coming people, I'm sure it's full of spelling and grammar mistakes and I apologize. for anyone who's following YGM, it might be a while before I post another chapter since I don't have access to my files at the moment. The processer in my computer is fried and we don't know if we'll be able to shift the hard drive from my computer into my husbands. If we can, I'll finish the chapter I was working on. If not, I'll have to start from scratch. Oh well, such is life, my laptop was at least 5 years old so it's not too suprising.

Again, please review and tell me what you think. Flames will be used to wipe my nose.


	5. chapter 5

Demon's Angel

Chapter 5

AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with. OOC, AU, future Yaoi, and X-over warnings.

Thanks go to the following reviewers: Kuno-Baby, Innortal, Jerry Unipeg, and ranma hibiki. The encouragement helps keep me writing...

-ooOOoo-

Helen had a ritual, one she performed every night before going to bed. It was something that she had started doing soon after she'd arrived at St. Mary's Church and Orphanage on L2. It was now a habit, one that was started when two of the older boys were caught picking pockets when they should have been at the orphanage asleep in bed. Every night before she went to her room, Sister Helen double checked the locks on all the doors and windows and checked to make sure everyone was presesnt and accounted for in the dorms. That done, she would go to her own tiny room, say her prayers, and get ready to go to sleep.

In the last few days an extra stop had been added to her routine. At first she'd almost forgotten about Ranma and Duo's little cubby hole but catching the younger boy in the halls after lights out had reminded her. Now every evening she made sure to check that the two children sleeping in the old closet were settled in just like the rest.

What surprised her was that Duo was less of a problem since he had been moved in with Ranma. While he was in the dorms she could count on Duo disappearing before bed time at least two of three times a week. Since Ranma had shown up, he'd only taken off once, and he was back with in half an hour of her noticing he was gone. The most interesting thing was that with him he brought half a dozen books and a few other items that either she or Father Jim had given him that had subsequently disappeared.

-ooOOoo-

Father Maxwell was furious.

He'd finally managed to get young Ranma alone once he'd 'convinced' Duo to resume going to school a few days after the black -haired boy woke up. It had taken a lot of talking on his part and nearly dragging the younger boy out the door to get him to go back to school with out Ranma. In fact he didn't think he could have done it without Ranma's help. The older boy had been quite upset to learn that Duo had been skipping school to watch him and had insisted that Duo go back because he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much. The boy had seemed almost relieved, watching his shadow dissappear for at least seven hours.

That relief had left as soon as he was asked to join Father Maxwell in his office.

At first Father Maxwell just looked at the boy, wondering where to start. He knew from experience over the last few days that anything more subtle than asking the boy directly would be deliberatly misunderstood if it was something the boy didn't want to answer. So he said it flat out, giving the boy no choice but to answer yes or no. He didn't think he'd ever forget the conversation that followed.

"When we were cleaning you up after I found you, I noticed some odd scarring Ranma. I hate to ask this way, but were you raped?"

"Yes."

The boy seemed fascinated by the top of his desk as he sat bolt upright in his chair hands clenched tightly together.

Father Jim almost smacked himself in exasperation when he heard the next question out of his mouth. Of course the boy didn't want to talk about it! The response to his question suprised him however. Ranma said no, he didn't want to talk about it, but that he probably should. Seeing the boy's eyes for the first time since he came into the office, Jim could see that the boy was scared but determined, so he asked him to tell him what happened.

The story that haltingly followed left the priest enraged. How could a father sell his own child as a whore like that? And so damn young! He resolved to keep the boy safe and out of his father's hands, although by what Ranma said, the man was long since dead. He almost wished it wasn't so. At the moment, there was nothing he would have liked better than the ability to break the man's jaw and send him to prision.

It took a few moments, but when he finally came back to himself, he found Ranma watching him with wary eyes, apparently expecting Father Maxwell to take his anger out on him. He seemed rather suprised when the priest simply asked him if he was sure his father was dead and seemed disappointed when he confirmed that fact and that no, none of this happened on L2 so there wasn't anyone he needed to look out for.

After that the conversation switched gears and Father Maxwell began asking him questions about his schooling. Apparently he was planning to register Ranma at the local school as soon as he was well enough and they had figured out what level of classes to put him in. The priest seemed rather pleased by his level of knowledge for some reason and told him that they would try to get him into one of the classes at Duo's school after he took some placement tests.

He did seem a bit taken a back when Ranma asked him about a place to meditate and excercise. After figuring out that Ranma was looking for someplace quiet, out side and about the size of his office, he showed him a good sized flat spot on the rood of the orphanage that could be reached by a door at the top of the back stairs. It was a place that at one time had held a small flower garden when the neighborhood had been more prosperous.

After watching the boy stretch and begin an odd almost dance that reminded him of the Tai Chi he'd watched his mother do when he was a boy, he left the boy alone and returned to his office to resume working of the never ending paper work that came with running the orphanage.

-ooOOoo-

Ranma could feel the eyes on him as he began the first kata he'd ever learned. At half speed it looked quite peaceful, yet when used in earnest, it was very effective. Tuning out alal distractions yet remaining aware of his surroundings, Ranma continued his evaluation of his current physical strength, speed, and endurance. he was pleasently suprised to find that he had not lost as much as he had feared.

Soaked in sweat he settled down and began thinking about what he'd told Father Maxwell. He'd told the man only part of what his father had done seslling him for food, money, and liquor, but had left out most of his training as a martial artist.

Father Maxwell already had enough to try to understand about his past.

-ooOOoo-

AN: I'm sorry it's a bit short but I hope you'll all enjoy it anyway. There's going to be a bit of a time jump between this chapter and the next. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed.


	6. chapter 6

AN: the characters and settings of Gundam Wing AC do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to play with. OOC, AU, future Yaoi, and X-over warnings.

Demon's Angel

Chapter 6

She sipped her tea as she watched the boys dance in the dawning light.

She wasn't normally given to poetic thoughts, but watching her boys as they worked thier way through the series of movements that the elder of the two, Ranma, called kata, Helen found it hard not think of what they were doing as dancing. It was so graceful.

It didn't matter that the smaller of the two figures was a bit clumsy and a bit slower than the larger boy as they moved. Both seemed to be dancing to music heard only by them in the early hours before any of the other children were awake.

The boys danced and she continued to watch.

ooOOoo

Meal times at Maxwell orphanage had always been 'interesting' and had only gotten more so with the introduction of chopsticks as well as what Ranma called speed training and Duo called 'stopping Ranma from stealing food off my plate'. The chopsticks had remained, but the so called 'speed training' had ended very quickly when Father Jim declared that if either boy tried that again at his table, both boys would be missing the next meal. That put an end to that nonsense.

Unfortunately, that was only the beginning.

In the course of the first three weeks of Ranma's residence at the orphanage, the boys had gotten into twice the amount of trouble that Duo got into on his own, which was a feat in and of itself. Apparently two minds were more fertile than one. The chaos the two boys could create in the space of five minutes was incredible. Especially if it involved the boy Duo called Slider. The practical jokes the pair played on the other boy and his followers among the kids in the orphanage were becoming more than a little disrubtive. The trouble the two caused at school led to the two being placed in seperate classes. Not that it helped all that much. Duo sulked, Ranma spent more time asleep at his desk than not without Duo to help keep him awake, and they continued to get into trouble.

Father Maxwell would have been much more upset than he was if the boys had been making trouble on purpose. The real problem was as pair of active, curious, self reliant kids who learned faster than their classmates, were bored to death at school, and who had a tendancy to ignore rules if it suited them. Though were they got thier ideas for some of the things they did to entertain themselves or for certain pranks he'd never figure out.

And so, now instead of one demon he had two to tame.

Maxwell's Demons.

ooOOoo

School was just as boring as ever as far as Ranma was concerned. The lessons and teachers hadn't improved at all since he'd last gone to school several centuries earlier, and he didn't even have daily fights with Ryouga or the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew to distract him from his boredom. There weren't even any crazy teachers or such around. He'd just about smacked himself when he realized he actually missed Principle Kuno and his pineapple bombs.

Part of the problem was that his written English was so bad the testers had put him in Duo's grade even though he already knew most of the stuff they went over. That meant that the only times he was actually learning anything were during history and science, after all he did have several centuries of both to catch up on. Things like World War II and the first nuclear bombs were ancient history now, and things that others had lived through or took for granted he'd never heard of. At least english was still a pain in the butt, even without Miss Hinako as a teacher. Sure he spoke decent English, mostly thanks to Duo, but he still had trouble reading it and his writing skills were abysmal. English spelling still made no sense and was annoying as hell, but still at least he had most of the grammer figured out now.

Still, compared to living in Nerima life was good if a little boring. Pulling pranks and getting trouble with Duo help keep things interesting. So what if he'd ended up wearing someone elses old clothes and had a broom closet as a bedroom. He'd slept in worse places and had spent most of his life with only one set of clothes. The food was good, even if it wasn't up to Kasumi's standards and best of all, he had someone who actually cared about him, not what he could do for them, and no-one was trying to kill or marry him.

With that in mind, he had to admit that while they kept life interesting it was a good thing that he didn't didn't have any enemies like Ryouga or even Mouusse or Kuno anymore. At the moment they'd have no trouble defeating him. He was still recovering from all the time he'd spent in the grey space that the Naban Mirror had sent him into, and while he had been able to maintain most of his speed and flexibility while floating in nothingness, his strength and stamina had suffered greatly. His skills, other than than the ki based ones, were pretty rusty too. It was hard to practice anything that required pushing against something, even if only the floor, when there was nothing to push against.

When he'd first awoken on the colony he'd been no stronger than the average eleven year old. Now he had regained enough so that he was stronger than most guys five or six years older than he was. His stamina also remained fairly low, by his standards anyway. He hadn't been this weak sisnnce he was ten. There was no way he'd be able to swim from China to Japan in his current state, or even between the main islands of Japan. He still had some serious work ahead of him before he could even think about matching his former physical prowess, and the worst part was that there was no where on the colony he could go to do the sort of serious training he needed to do with out endagering the lives of all the inhabitants.

On the colony. Heh, now that's something that had thrown him for a loop. He was currently living in a man-made structure IN SPACE. Sure Duo had talked about it when he was still a dream, but somehow it never really registered. It had still remained little more than a vauge idea to him until Father Maxwell had taken him to the docking area and he'd had a chance to look 'outside'. Soon as he'd absorbed the worst of his shock at that little detail he'd made a promise to himself.

No Ki Blasts.

No matter what kind of trouble he encountered, he couldn't risk punching a hole in the colony any killing everyone with an ill-judged blast.

Instead he worked on control. He'd summon the energy for a ki attack, hold it, and then reabsorb it. He also made up an excercise where he created several balls of ki too small to do any serious damage, juggled them, and practiced directing them where he wanted them to go and shaping them into various weapons. It was something he'd started doing out of shear boredom while hanging in limbo for all that time. There was only so long you could spend getting blasts as big as possible before you got bored out of your mind.

One other thing he'd managed to do was get the neko-ken under partial control. He was still scared of cats but he was no longer totally mindless when he was immersed in the neko-ken and he could summon the state at will with only a bit of concentration. No cats required. All he had to do was remember getting doused with cold water with Shampoo attached to him, his first couple of years hanging in limbo, or if he was in a hurry, the first time Pops had sold him as a fuck-toy.

Oh he still thought he was a cat when it happened, but now he could recognize friend from foe and stop himself from attacking anything or anyone who caught his attention. He'd proven this his third night sleeping in the ex-broom closet with Duo. Duo shook him awake in the middle of a nightmare and he had awoken already immersed in the Neko-ken. He'd stayed that way for most of the morning until the cat decided to take a nap and woke up as Ranma. That had taken some serious explaining. Hopefully he'd never have to explain it again to anyone.

Yeah right...

ooOOoo

AN: I'm sorry this is so short people. Hopefully the next chapter will be longer. I know exactly where I want this to go, I'm just having a bit of trouble getting it there.

Thanks to Innortal, ranma hibiki, Jerry Unipeg, ColdCipher, and Kuno-Baby for the reviews. The encouragement helps keep me writing...

PLEASE REVIEW!

please?... (begs)


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